San Elan
So our CEO, Ivan Gazidis, tells us that Arsenal have a great business model. They can easily manage without Champions’ League football. He forgot to mention to the business leaders who were at the conference that they were all born yesterday. And that we fans are stupid.
Let’s see how this would work. Without Champions’ League football, we would lose around £25 million every year. Arsenal’s popularity around the world would diminish and so, therefore, would sales of merchandise. When the Far East tourists come to town, they’d want to go and see a winning football team. None of us go to Barçelona and say ‘we want to go and watch Espanyol’. Besides, none of the top players would come to Arsenal. The power of players cannot be underestimated. Top players enhance a team’s reputation no end. I heard a discussion on 5live recently on how Didier Drogba alone made Chelsea famous around the world. Remember the days when we had some players – Henry, Bergkamp and Vieira? Who do we have now, after Fabregas is gone?
So we are happy to lose around £25 million a year, but not prepared to pay, say, £20 million for a quality player like Mata (I know we have to pay his wages) who would probably keep us in the CL for a few years to come and probably pay back his initial outlay within the year!
The same sustainable model is prepared to pay mediocre players more than they deserve and not prepared to pay the appropriate wages for top stars! Now, as for the ticket prices...
A vehicle manufacturer like Daimler must have a great business model. They built their business on building quality, expensive Mercedes and their customers are happy to pay for them. Imagine them building a much larger car plant knowing that they can sell more cars and make more money. Once it is built, they start to produce cars like Hyundai (no offence intended) and insist on charging the same price as the Mercedes. The loyal customers may buy the new cars for a short period. They would soon see it is not the same car they are used to and not worth the price they paid for them. Would Daimler’s business model work in this scenario?
I know that football is different, and it has emotional connections and the rest. But the club can’t have it both ways; run it like a business and charge the earth for ticket prices and expect us gullible fans to part with cash for the dross they produce.
This business model will collapse sooner rather than later. It doesn’t take a highly paid management consultant to figure this out.
